Overwatch Reveals Mech Riding Hamster as Hero 28

By Michael Cottuli 10 September 2018

After a few days of lead-up, Overwatch has finally revealed the 28th hero that’s going to be entering the game’s roster. The reveal, as well as most of the teasers that came out in the days prior, was done over Twitter. At the time of writing, there is no name attributed to the new hero – just a peek at his design, and what could possibly be one of his highlight intros.

The champion revealed. pic.twitter.com/0Fdpg2iBcs

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) June 28, 2018

The new champion seems to be a hamster that rides around in a hamster ball-esque mech. While the Overwatch community is still waiting on a proper confirmation about the identity of the hero, it seems almost certain that this is Hammond. Hammond has been hinted at for a very long time now, with references to him being found in the game since the Horizon Lunar Colony map launched just a little over a year ago. One of these references even refers to Hammond making his way through a ventilation shaft – which makes a lot more sense for a hamster than for the primate most of the community had assumed him to be.

As to the mechanics of the new hero, it’s anybody’s guess. A leak from the early days of Horizon Lunar Colony suggested that Hammond would be a builder-support hero, creating barriers through anchor points and dropping stun beacons to sabotage diving enemies. The leak seemed to hold up at the time, but it also asserted that Hammond was a chimpanzee. Unless this isn’t Hammond, the leak’s mechanics can most likely be written off.

Beyond that, the design of Hammond’s hamster ball looks like it’s pretty offensive. It’s tough to get a real sense of scale in the 10-second look that Blizzard showed off on Twitter, but it seems like it has a very bulky design. If this writer had to speculate, Hero 28’s wide hitbox makes it seem like he’s going to be a tank hero – very possibly a disruptive one, not dissimilar to D.Va and Winston. It seems like the hamster ball may be able to roll out at high speeds, and then turn into its offensive mech form, so it’s not too strange to think that he can roll into enemy teams, cause a panic, and then scurry away once his mech has been destroyed.

While that guess could be entirely wrong, it brings up an important question: Will Hero 28 be able to leave and recall his mech, like D.Va can? This is currently the second mech-riding character, and it might not be the last one. Blizzard will be setting a precedent here as to whether or not D.Va’s eject and recall mechanic is unique to her, or could be applied to other mech-riding heroes.

There is currently no release window for the new hero, but based on previous tease/release cycles, he will likely be on PTR very, very soon.